Episode #189
The Sneaky Way Your Teacher Brain Steals Your Last Weeks of Summer
The Sneaky Way Your Teacher Brain Steals Your Last Weeks of Summer If you're down to your last couple of weeks of summer and staring at a list of everything you meant to get done, this episode is for you. Kelsey shares a live coaching clip from this year's Summer Refresh event, over 1,000 teachers watched it happen in real time, featuring a teacher named Tori, who came to the call with two weeks of summer left, an unfinished to-do list, and a heavy, anxious feeling she hadn't quite named yet. What unfolds is a masterclass in noticing your "teacher brain" in action: the stories we tell ourselves ("it'll get better when school's out... when testing's over... when I leave the classroom"), the loops those stories keep us stuck in, and what it actually looks like to pause and find, as Kelsey puts it, "the space between stimulus and response." What You'll Hear The teacher brain story loop — why "it'll get better when ___" rarely delivers, and how it shows up as both a weekly micro-cycle and a full school-year macro-cycle The Viktor Frankl-attributed quote that anchors the whole episode: "Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose." Tori's live coaching session — she came in wanting to "enjoy the rest of the summer" and instead uncovered anxiety, disappointment, and a rumination habit she didn't fully recognize until she named it out loud The "thought villages" / "bouncing castle" moment — coach Chrissy's metaphor for how our thoughts cascade and circle instead of leading anywhere Why being "in your head" isn't the same as processing — and how resisting an emotion is often what keeps the pressure on Tori's breakthrough — she doesn't leave with a finished to-do list, but with real clarity on what she actually wants from her remaining summer A Few Moments Worth Marking Tori naming her anxiety as physical for the first time, noticing it in her chest, shoulders, and neck, and realizing, "This is the first time I've actually stopped to consider that." Kelsey's reframe: there's nothing wrong with sitting in anxiety and not getting things done. The real question is simply, is that what you want? Tori's own aha: enjoying summer means letting go of the impending deadline and "letting it be what it is"
